The Pirate Lord by Sabrina Jeffries Read Free Book Online Page B

guns.”
    The first mate scowled, obviously all too aware of what that might mean. “The flag. What’s the flag?” His cry was seconded by the captain, who’d already been called on deck by the bosun.
    Petey swung the spyglass along the ship’s fearsome flanks again, until finally he saw a flag being hoisted. “Hold a minute! They’re hoistin’ the flag now!” That in itself was a bad sign, for most ships sailed with their flags hoisted.
    “God protect us all,” he muttered when he caught sight of the flag. It was black as tar, with a grinning white skull and crossbones.
    “Pirates!” he shouted. “Pirates approachin’!”
    “All hands on deck!” cried the captain as the bosun scurried to ring the warning bell. “Get the women below, and tell the lads to show a leg!”
    Never had the ship’s crew moved so quickly into action, swinging into their duties like marionettes at a county fair. Ignoring the questions of the women, two of the sailors hustled them down the hatches as the captain barked commands, and other sailors rushed to unfurl the top sails and man the ship’s few guns.
    “Full sail!” the captain shouted to the first mate, who repeated the order. “We’ll outrun them!”
    Petey thought that unlikely. He kept the spyglass trained on the ship, looking for any signs of weakness and finding none. The schooner was American made by the look of her, and her light draught made her faster than any English frigate. Schooners manned by American privateers had been a sore trouble to English merchant ships during the War of 1812. Though the war was long over, many privateers had turned to pirating, and he feared that was the case with the ship that dogged them.
    Perhaps when they saw there was no booty to be gained from the capture, they’d let the Chastity go. It had happened before, or so he’d heard.
    “They’re gainin’ on us!” Petey called down to the captain, who in turn worked the sailors into a frenzy to get the ship moving faster. But there wasn’t much they could do. The same wind drove both ships, but the other ship was lighter and thereby faster.
    Petey leveled the spyglass again. They were closer now, close enough that he could see the flag in great detail. He squinted to get a better look at the skull. This skull looked different, not like the usual skull and crossbones. Something about the shape of the head…
    Horns. The skull had horns. His heart sank. Only one pirate ship bore that flag—the Satyr .
    To make sure, he looked for the figurehead. When he saw the telltale carving of the mythological half-goat, half-man, he groaned aloud. Then he lifted his glass and saw the black-haired man standing in the bow. It was the Satyr , all right. And its demon owner, Captain Gideon Horn.
    “‘Tis the Pirate Lord himself!” he called out as he tucked the spyglass under his arm and began to shimmy down the main mast. “‘Tis Captain Horn of the Satyr ! And we’ll not outrun him! He’s got the fastest ship on the seas!”
    As he reached the deck, the captain hurried to his side, his face white beneath his muttonchop whiskers. “Are you sure, man? The Pirate Lord? Why would he be after us? Our owner ain’t no nobleman, but a tradesman!”
    The Pirate Lord’s peculiar choice of targets had given him his nickname. The first ship he’d attacked had been carrying its owner, a stupid earl who’d foolishly warned the pirate not to show such disrespect to “a member of the House of Lords.”
    The witnesses to that first capture had immortalized the pirate’s retort: “In America, all men are equal, and even a pirate is a lord. So I bow to no one but God, sir, especially not a dandified English noble.” Captain Horn had stolen everything the earl possessed, down to theclothes on his back. And he’d stolen a kiss from the man’s own wife as well.
    All of the Satyr ’s targets since then had been ships owned by English nobility or those carrying noble passengers, and it was rumored